Chapter 25: Importing and Cleaning Data
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If your worksheet contains any Unicode characters, you should export the file using the
Unicode variant. Otherwise, Unicode characters will be saved as question mark characters.
PRN files
A PRN file is very much like a printed image of the worksheet. The cells are separated by
multiple space characters. Also, a line is limited to 240 characters. If a line exceeds that
limit, the remainder appears on the next line. PRN files are rarely used.
Exporting to other file formats
Excel also lets you save your work in several other formats:
Data Interchange Format These files have a .dif extension. These are not used very
often.
Symbolic Link These files have an .sylk extension. These are not used very often.
Portable Document Format These files have a .pdf extension. This is a common
“read-only” file format.
XML Paper Specification Document These files have an .xps extension. This is
Microsoft’s alternative to PDF files. It is not used very often.
Web Page These files have an .htm extension. Often, saving a file as a webpage will gen-
erate a directory of ancillary files required to render the page accurately.
OpenDocument Spreadsheet These files have an .ods extension. They’re compatible with
various open-source spreadsheet programs.